Hey guys! Sorry it's been a month, tried to finish before I went on vacation but it didn't happen ;_; and when I got back it was work, work, work, then sleep ^^! Alright gonna make this note short so you can start reading.

Gift fic for EternalFlame401, I'm happy to see you're enjoying it~

Disclaimer: I don't own Fairy Tail, meh.

Word count: At a whopping 7,597 (last I checked and without the author's note). Hope you guys enjoy the long chapter ;P because I can't seem to write anything shorter as of late lol

Warnings: Some minor but fairly graphic descriptions of violence. Takes place in part 6, within a flashback, right after you see a bolded Lucy — like that. Also mild language, like very sparingly so. Let me know if I have to bump up the rating because of it. I'm no good at determining those kinds of things.

I also did not edit this! D: let me know if there are really bad mistakes.

Part 4: Things are Never Easy

Wendy let out a small sigh as she sat back down while Natsu had remained silent, eyes still fixated on the door that Lucy escaped through. The tension in the room seemed to increase by tenfold, settling around the two occupants in a dense and stuffy atmosphere.

"It hasn't been easy, you know." Rung out Wendy's soft voice and Natsu finally jerked his head back towards the younger girl.

"Huh?" Natsu tilted his head in confusion.

Wendy fiddled with her thumbs, inwardly berating herself for speaking up and unsure if she should say anything more. But since Lucy had went ahead and said all those things, Wendy felt that she should at least finish what the blonde had started. "Oh, um..." She trailed off, not sure what to say let alone how to start. "Well everyone was just so worried about you Natsu. To be honest, we weren't sure if you were ever going to wake up. And with each passing day it just seemed to solidify our worst fears." She was sure that wasn't what she had wanted to say but she'll have to go with it for now.

"What do mean?" Natsu asked despite the trepidation he somewhat felt.

"You were in a coma. And the longer you stayed unconscious the less likely chance you had of ever waking up."

Hearing that there was a chance of him never waking was suddenly making him feel dizzy but there was still a couple of things he needed to know. "You said I was in a coma?" Wendy nodded. Natsu mimicking her action in understanding, reaffirmed, "and this was since the mission at the temple."

"Yes." She answered softly.

He sighed. Worried. "How long was I out?"

Wendy looked down at her hands. "Um. Over two weeks."

"What!?" Natsu immediately shouted, making Wendy jump. There was no way he had been unconscious for that long. He had assumed it was something like three days.

"Yeah." She squeaked. "That's why everyone–" Wendy stopped, clutching her small hands at the ends of her dress.

"What?" Natsu asked then reiterated. "Everyone what?"

Wendy shook her head. "I... Struggled to heal you at first." She admitted instead. And it surprised Wendy how easy it was for her to speak, although her voice was barely above a whisper, as if it didn't want to be heard. "Which was why we all expected the worse to happen..." She trailed off, voice growing meeker and quieter with each word.

Natsu nodded in understanding—his almost death apparently. He couldn't even begin to imagine that it was that bad. Couldn't fathom how his friends all felt during those moments. Even with Lucy descriptions and his vague memories.

"Something seemed to have prevented me from properly healing you." She decided to say after a minute of silence. "It took us awhile before we could even move you and if it wasn't for Gray..."

"Gray?" He interrupted, but hearing the name sent him reeling and buzzing with confusion. "What did he do?"

"O-oh w-well, when I was trying to heal you back at Lost Blood's base... you may have gone into cardiac arrest... right around when you lost consciousness for a second time." She hesitantly explained.

Natsu sat there dumbly. "What does that even mean?"

She sighed shakily, this was something she wasn't a hundred percent sure she could explain, "cardiac arrest is basically when your heart suddenly stops working." She glanced at Natsu for a brief moment and saw his horrified expression.

He placed his hand on his heart, feeling the steady beat and unable to imagine it not there. "My heart stopped?"

"Kind of yeah. Only for a little bit." Wendy knew that she didn't sound reassuring whatsoever. "It was difficult for me because like I said before my magic wasn't healing like it should've been, not fully at least. And trying to start your heart the normal way didn't work either." At the sight of Natsu tilting his head in confusion she explained further, "you know, CPR."

Natsu blanched, he knew what that was but who exactly performed it? He eyed warily at Wendy and she couldn't help but giggle, "I didn't do it, Gray did." She giggled even more at the sight of Natsu's cheeks reddening.

"Well we had to try, although cardiac arrest caused by magic presents itself differently then what it usually would have under normal circumstances. But we were kind of desperate," she said almost sheepishly. "I sill kept trying with my magic though and we were able to get a pulse. I managed to heal parts of the wound on your side but it didn't completely close and it seemed it wanted to stay that way, Gray had to seal your wound over with ice if we wanted to move you."

Natsu sat there with wide eyes. Gray had done all that? For him? Just the mere thought had done more than simply heating his cheeks. "Wow." He murmured. He was burning up in a way his fire magic had never did. There was another pause as Natsu processed all the information given to him. It was strange how all of these things happened and he could only roughly remember some of it. Granted he was unconscious for a good portion of it. But there was still something that had been bugging him.

"Where is Gray now?"

Wendy pursed her lips. "He's not at the guild right now. He's on a mission with Erza."

"Oh..." Natsu replied dejectedly. It seemed that despite everything Gray had done for him, it was easy for the ice mage to dump Natsu at the guild before adventuring off on another mission.

At the sight of Natsu's crestfallen expression, Wendy could almost slap herself at her poor choice of wording. "Natsu believe it or not but Gray was one of the few people who never left your side ever since we brought you back."

Natsu perked up. "Really?"

"Yes," she reassured. "Erza kind of forced him to go on a mission because he would spend almost all day and night in this room with you, only leaving sparingly to eat or to go home and wash up. It was wearing him down. So Erza made him sleep in his own bed for a night before taking him out on a quick mission."

The warm feeling was coming back after hearing those words. He can't believe Gray did all of that. But it did upset him that he truly worried all of his friends to such an extent.

"Okay, now what about Happy? I thought he would be the first to come see me." The last time Natsu had seen his Exceed friend was when he was knocked out cold in Wendy's arms and that apparently was almost three weeks ago. He was sure that the blue cat was okay but he wanted to see him with own eyes.

And then maybe cuddle him for a good couple of minutes. Just to annoy his friend. Happy always complained that he squeezed him too tight. Natsu in turn would just call him a wimp. Natsu smiled to himself. He really missed Happy.

Wendy's gaze grew affectionate at the sight of Natsu's internal musings. "Well I kind of sent Happy and Carla to fly out and search for Gray and Erza because I could hear you waking up and I wanted to let them know as soon as possible. Plus they should be back today."

Ah. That explained why they showed so quickly after he regained consciousness. Dragon slayer hearing.

"Don't worry they'll be back–"

"NATSUUUUUUU!" The wailing voice cried out, drowning out Wendy's instantly.

"–soon."

"Oof!" The giant blur fur ball crashed into Natsu's chest pushing out whatever leftover air there was from his lungs. Wendy heard them coming but she was still surprised that they got here so quickly.

She quickly shook away her shock when she caught Natsu wincing with a light groan escaping his lips. "Happy!" She admonished. "You have to be careful! Natsu hasn't fully healed yet."

But her words fell on deaf ears as Happy continued to sniffle and sob into Natsu's chest. "Na-aa-tsuuu." He continued to cry.

"It's okay Wendy." Natsu said through a grimace and Happy's blubbering. He petted the Exceed gently, trying to calm down his small friend. "C'mon Happy, it's okay. I'm fine. See?"

Happy shot Natsu an angry look with hot tears still pouring from his eyes. "No it's not okay Natsu! I was really worried and scared! I thought I–" another sob. "I thought I was gonna lose you forever. I thought I was gonna be alone." He muttered woefully, his ears flattening on his head.

Natsu had to blink back his own tears from seeing Happy so downtrodden. "I'm so sorry Happy." The apology sounded feeble, barely worth anything but it was all he could offer.

Happy curled up on Natsu's lap. "I forgive you. It's not really your fault anyways." He cuddled up more into Natsu's lap when the dragon slayer began to stroke his fur. "I've just been really sad without you."

The girls continued to watch as they had their moment; how Natsu muttered another apology while rubbing a spot between Happy's ears that caused him to purr. Wendy couldn't help but giggle at the sight, even Carla smiled a little before teasing, "You should've see him while we were out. The entire time was him complaining about wanting to come back as soon as possible so he could see Natsu." She snickered at the memory while Happy whined a small "Carla!"

"Wait!" Wendy piped up. "I can't believe I almost forgot." Looking towards Carla she asked, "Gray and Erza aren't with you guys. Were you unable to find them?"

It was barely imperceptible. But Wendy caught it—the exchange of panicked looks shared between the two Exceeds. She bit her lip in worry. She didn't like where this was heading. That is until Carla huffed, "yeah we found them alright." Wendy's eyebrows raised high at the sound of the white cat's cynical tone.

"What do you mean?" Wendy asked, head tilting to the side in confusion. She could smell the apprehension settling in air and it smelled bitter causing her face to twist up in distaste. Carla flew down onto the edge of the bed that was nearest to Wendy. Turning to her and even with all the seriousness etched in her expression her voice still came out wryly.

"When we found them, they were arguing. Again. We didn't even bother to approach them."

"Yeah it sounded pretty bad." Happy added dismally.

Natsu glanced over at Wendy, saw the morose grimace she had. A look like that should never appear on her face. She was quiet for a while before replying with a whispered, "oh..." Despite Wendy hardly breathing out the single word, Natsu's ears could still pick up all the sorrow it held. Happy nestled himself closer to Natsu but he was quivering. Even Carla looked highly upset. But more than that, they all looked so defeated.

"What's with the gloomy looks?" Natsu asked, "are Erza and Gray fighting or something?" Because alongside everything else that's happened since he woke up, he was only becoming more confused. Why would the two of them agree to go on a mission together if they were arguing? And they made it seem that it happened all too often. Natsu embraced Happy slightly tighter subconsciously, what has been happening while he was in a coma?

"I wouldn't say that..." Happy replied petutantly.

Carla clicked her tongue. "That's one way to put it."

Natsu turned to Wendy but she couldn't bear to meet his questioning gaze.

"Sorry Natsu. It just hasn't been easy for us."

Part 5: It's Not Okay

The tension that surrounded the pair of mages weighed down on them brutally. It made the armor that one of them was wearing feel so much heavier than what it should have been.

Erza glanced over at her companion, saw how the wind softly ruffled through his raven hair, and saw how cold and focused his eyes were on the road ahead of him.

"Gray," she called softly, but with the firm attitude she was known for.

Her friend hardly spared her an acknowledgement—a slight tilt of his head and a quirk of his brow. What she was hoping for however, were words. A voice. Any kind of noise. Instead, Erza was greeted by silence. Just like it had been between them for the Pentirety of their mission. Hell, for the past three weeks! Gray had barely spoken since the moment they came back to the guild from their previous mission.

It was unnerving her and she didn't like it. She knew that he was troubled by that mission and knew it wouldn't do him good to keep his emotions bottled up the way he had been doing. But as much as she wished he'd open up to her about it, there were other pressing matters to attend to.

"Gray," Erza attempted again, sterner this time. "I think we should discuss what happened on our mission."

The ice mage clicked his tongue in annoyance. Responding her without sparing a glance. "What's there to discuss about? We were successful weren't we?"

Erza was ready to reprimand him but decided that the best course of action was to remain patient and not punish him for his snarky tone. She knew reacting with irritation would only push Gray farther away and couldn't have that. Not with how the distance between Gray and everyone else steadily grew.

He was drifting away. And it scared her.

"Yes we were..." She agreed, despite the hints of hesitatnce found in her voice. "But that's not what I meant."

"Oh, is that so?" He snidely remarked.

She wasn't the patient type and sure enough she wanted to snap at him. She internally held herself back. He was merely being stubborn, and his moodiness was just one of many issues caused by an even deeper problem. The last thing she needed was for one of them to get upset and for them to be hurdled into yet another argument.

As neutral as she could, she pointed out, "you were reckless."

Gray scoffed, "since when have we ever actually been careful on our missions?" He crossed his arms, turning his face away, but Erza saw the dark expression momentarily crossing his face.

"Perhaps you should excercise a little more care then." She suggested, trying to not make it sound like she was patronizing him, because she wasn't (not that he would believe her). "You were almost severely wounded."

"I'm fine!" He spat.

"Your arm is broken!" She countered. Pointing to the makeshift ice cast and splint he made for himself using his torn up shirt as a sling. Luckily for him, their mission was fairly close to their guild, just a day's walk and Gray assured that he would be able to make it back well enough until Wendy could check it out. But she was regretting letting herself get talked into heading straight back to the guild without making him stop by a doctor to take a proper look at his arm.

"It's just a fucking arm!" He shouted right back. This was why. Normally Gray was more cautious when on a mission but this recent one—a routine type, dealing with troublesome thieves that were stealing magical artifacts in various nearby towns— Gray had all but thrown himself impulsively into the fray. Now even though the thieves held no magic of their and could've been dealt with easily, there was a reason as to why they stole the artifacts. It worked wonders on hindering magic users' abilities. They were able to block and deflect most attacks, at one point one of the objects had caused Gray's magic to spiral out of control before they absorbed it.

Because of his carelessness he had almost lost his arm and this was why she was fuming. "Yes! It is just a fucking arm Gray but one that you need to perform your magic and be a mage!"

He flinched but he didn't back down. No longer was he intimated by her.

"Well, it could be worse." He said mockingly. "I could be dead."

She frowned. "I'm being serious Gray."

"And so am I!" He shot back irritably.

She didn't want to fight with Gray again and she was sure he would rather avoid one too. So why couldn't he just talk civilly with her!? But now she was raising her own voice and there was no going back. "If you were serious then you wouldn't be letting yourself get unnecesarily hurt!"

"Why doesn't it even matter now!?" He exasperated. "The mission is over, we're heading back, and Wendy will soon fix my arm up. There, problem solved!"

"That isn't the problem here!" She yelled in frustration.

But her yell spurred something nasty within Gray. The typically cool-headed ice Mage had hit his boiling point. "Then what's the fucking problem!?"

Erza's eyes lit up dangerously. "The problem is that you could have lost an arm. The problem is that you could have died."

Gray scowled. "You're not even talking about this stupid mission anymore."

"Ha!" Erza barked, she threw her hands up exageratedly. "Does it even matter?" A sardonic twist entered her features and speech as she hissed at him. "Because it seems you're dead set on throwing yourself into a downward spiral of self-destruction. You're not taking care of yourself, you're getting yourself into reckless situations, you're hurting yourself!"

"I can take care of myself!" He stubbornly argued.

"No!" She disagreed. "You are gonna keep spiraling but you're not helping yourself by pushing everyone else away—every person who tries to help you!"

"I didn't ask for it!" His countenance was seething as he ranted on. "Is this your idea of helping me? Taking me out on stupid missions? Making me get some fresh air or some shit!?" He laughed dryly. "I can see what a fat lot of good it did me," he scorned, jostling his injured arm for emphasis.

Her temper soared but she took several deep breaths to calm down. And she still wasn't going to let this go. Ignoring him she continued. "How far are you gonna take this huh!? Until no one tries to help anymore? Until no one can!?"

Gray was visibly upset. And especially annoyed but he didn't utter another protest, that is he didn't get the chance to, she had all but sneered at him–

"Or are you punishing yourself until you are dead?"

Her eyes widened at her own words. She peered up at Gray's mirrored expression. But for a fraction of a second she saw pure, unadulterated sorrow. What on earthland had she done?

As the shocked faded away from Gray, a dark visage marred his features, and a storm took over his eyes. "Thanks for the advice, friend." He spat nastily.

"Gray—I–I..." She took a step forward. "I didn't mean–" it wasn't enough. Her words got caught in her throat.

He stared her down, his eyes now unfathomable, his emotions lost within the storm. After another brief pause, he snarled. "Tch, whatever." He turned away from her and began to stalk off.

Erza stood there, biting her lower as shame overtook her. She shouldn't had said that. But why couldn't Gray just see she was worried about him. Why couldn't he let her in past his thick ice walls, just like the advice he had given her years ago? She sighed but determination settled in her eyes. She wasn't letting him walk away again. With a surge of magic, there was a flash of light, and she was left in nothing but her casual clothes.

"Dammit Gray!" She shouted to him, pouring every emotion into her voice. And then she charged.

Gray had just enough time to turn around with widening eyes but not enough to stop her or even let a single word out.

"Er–"

He was caught off guard when Erza uncharacteristicly threw her arms around him, curling themselves around his bare waist tightly.

"Erza!?" Gray balked. "What are you doing?" With his one good arm he grabbed her shoulders to try and pull her back but she gripped him tighter, burrowing her face into his neck.

"Please talk to me." She implored. And Gray was surprised to hear the emotion breaking through her words. "You're not okay." Erza stated it as a fact but she sounded so sad. "We're friends but you won't tell me anything." She felt him stiffen but that didn't stop her, it felt like she was finally reaching him. So this time she wasn't going to let go. "You're hurting yourself, you're... hurting but you won't tell me what's wrong." Erza usually was never at such a loss for words but she couldn't find any other way to bring out her troubled feelings.

"Gray..." She called softly, almost meekly. She felt his one good hand squeezing her shoulder with more force but in no way did it hurt. She could feel his turmoil pumping through his veins and weaving through muscle and sinew.. She pulled back slightly to look up at him. "You're not okay."

She was trembling. He was trembling too. And she would never know which of them had started first.

"You're right." He intoned solemnly. "I'm not okay."

Part 6: Another Handful of Dust

Lucy didn't know where she ended up. After leaving Natsu and Wendy in the infirmary she vaguely remembered wandering the halls of the guild, avoiding the main hall where everyone was currently convened at. Soon they would all know of Natsu's awakening, swarming his room with warm wishes for a fast recovery.

She knew she couldn't be there for that. Not with the way she was feeling now.

And that just made the feeling worse.

Shehad stopped walking, resting her back against the wall, before she fully slumped on it. She could feel the tears streaming down her face and felt how she struggled with swallowing down her sobs.

She was choking, she couldn't breathe. It hurt.

But...

She was choking on nothing but memories.

It hurt, as she gasped and choked for air, gripping hard on the lance, trying push it away from her to no avail. It burned too, on her hands and throat as the lance itself heated up with the magic surging through it. What made this worse was the pain to her throat, chest and lungs from the constant choking and how she was beginning to feel dizzy from the lack of oxygen.

Was this how she was going to die? Was this how her friends were going to find her pathetic form? Choked to death as some helpless damsel in distress who wasn't strong enough to fight back on her own. Who wasn't even worth using magic on. The sad and sick realization struck her hard over the fact that this man was merely toying with her, that he could've killed her at any moment if he wanted to.

After all he took down every spirit she sent out as though they were mere flies. They could barely put up a fight. But why? Her spirits have always been strong enough to put up a decent fight, even against formidable foes. They all have been through so much together. Growing stronger together. She simply couldn't understand what went wrong this time.

Was it because of her? Because she was weak? Because she didn't have enough to faith in her spirits?

No she didn't want to believe that. She wouldn't believe that!

But then why…?

Her thoughts were blinded by a bright flash of golden light, that Lucy immediately recognized as the light formed when a celestial spirit came through the gate. She didn't recall summoning another spirit so one of them must've opened the gate themselves.

She didn't like this one bit. She could tell which one of her spirits would dare to try such a thing. The only who had a nasty habit of doing it whenever he pleased.

The master of Lost Blood eased up his lance on Lucy and she wasted no time in taking advantage at the chance to gasp in lungfuls of air.

The man himself seemed amused as the leader of the zodiac spirits stepped forward.

"Huh, well I surely didn't expect this to happen." He chuckled. "Welcome back to Earthland, Leo."

Loke didn't bother responding to him. One look at Lucy being pinned down by the dark guild master had turned him murderous.

"Let Lucy go."

"You really want to go another round with me?" Mallore asked.

"I said let her fucking GO!" Loke roared back.

Mallore sighed. "Very well then." He pulled himself and his lance away from Lucy, letting her flop to the floor like a rag doll.

From her position on the ground, Lucy could see how the Mallore's lance began to glow red, vibrating—no, purring in approval from the master's very apparent killing intent. But Loke stood his ground, both his hands lighting up with his magic and Lucy was scared to admit that Loke had a similar expression as the other did.

But as much as she was relieved to see that Loke was okay after his first battle with Mallore she couldn't shake the feeling that something terrible was about to happen.

"Leo, I promise you that this time, I'm going to make things a bit more interesting for us."

Loke's Magic engulfed him in bright golden light as he surged forward. Mallore grinned with anticipation as he twirled his lance, it's sinister magic seemed to affect the air around them. Making it heavier and dense.

Lucy was breathless.

And yet another hopeless fight had begun.

In Lucy's hand, was a small golden key, with the symbol of the Leo zodiac on it.

"The master of guild, he… He was unlike anyone we faced before, wasn't he Loke?" Lucy whispered to the key half in awe, half in fear. "I couldn't describe him properly to Natsu even if I wanted to." She laughed bitterly. "Remember how strong he was? How strange and powerful his magic seemed to be?"

There wasn't a response to her question. She clutched the key tighter against her palm. Leaving red marks.

"But we both know it was more than that. He had this ability that made you feel… So completely hopeless."

She bit her bottom lip. Hard.

"Remember what he did Loke?"

Her teeth broke the skin. She could taste iron. But Lucy didn't care for any of that as she looked back down, watching as how the light glinted of the golden key on her hand, with her gaze unfocused and dead.

"He crushed my spirit." She cryptically answered her own question in a broken whisper. "With a mere flick of his wrist."

The fight wasn't going well.

At first it seemed Loke had figured out the other man's fighting style but after landing a few successful hits, the master decided to change his moves. Making it harder for Loke to keep up, let alone land another blow.

"I'm happy to see that you're managing hold your own against me this time, Leo." The man praised.

"Like I care what you think." Loke spat. Gliding across the room with newfound speed, releasing what Lucy recognized as his Regulus Impact. It seemed to have connected after hearing the roar of his attack, with light bright enough to blind Lucy from her spot, and debris flying everywhere.

The light began to fade, Lucy hoped that Loke managed to do some damaged this time, she could see how weary and exhausted he was getting from using too much magic power. She was afraid he wouldn't be able to hold out much longer.

But there was a crackle of magic, something dark and dense filled the air, it felt as if this power could reach into her chest and unrelenting squeeze her lungs.

"Tch." Loke growled as the man stepped out of the remnants of his attack.

"Being a celestial spirit must be nice." Mallore commented, shaking off dirt and dust off himself and his lance. He disappeared before reappearing by Loke's side, swinging his lance down hard and swift. But Loke managed to block it. Pushing back the man and moving away from him.

"You have unique abilities."

Mallore repeated his previous move, disappearing before reappearing, the time overhead Loke. When he swung down his lance, he was blocked and pushed away yet again by Loke, however this time as he was flung back he planted his lance into the ground, using the momentum to swing himself around, thrusting himself back into the air. He disappeared again, coming up right above Loke except from behind. With his hands clutched together and dark red energy flowing around them, he delivered a strong blow to the back of Loke's head, sending him face first into the ground.

This was bad, Loke was slowing down too.

"You have strong magic."

Loke was barely able to get up and move away as the lance reappeared in Mallore's hand. A surge of magic blasted through the air that was nullified by his regulus. But he wasn't able to stop the lance from swiftly coming to his side not a second later, it hit his shoulder hard, making him stumble off to the side.

"And you can't die." The man darkly chuckled as he grabbed Loke's suit, jerking him forward before throwing Loke against the wall right next to where Lucy was.

"Loke..." She whimpered as she saw him struggling for a breath.

"Don't worry about me Lucy," Loke tried to reassure through his panting. They heard the other man chuckle again, making Loke let out another growl.

"Tell me something Leo, since you are immortal, would you even know what it feels like to die?"

Loke snarled, but tried to compose and straighten himself out. It hurt his pride however when he had to lean against the wall for additional support.

"Yes I do actually." He said even though didn't really want to answer the man. It made him remember his time being exiled from the celestial realm, slowly inching his way towards his death. He rather just go full throttle and pummel this guy with every ounce of magic he had. But with Lucy being so close to them if either of two men were to let out an attack, she would be caught in the crossfire. The very thing he wanted to avoid.

But to Loke's utter annoyance, Mallore shook his head in disagreement, "no I don't think you do."

"What the hell do you know about me anyways!?" Loke snapped, seriously this guy could just piss off.

The man shrugged, entirely nonchalant. "When I say die, I don't mean withering away to nothing like an old man would. That's just a passing off, but you know what they say, 'death is only a door' or in your case a gate," the man snickered at his own joke while Lucy and Loke found no amusement. But what bothered Loke more was the sinister glint in those dark eyes. And the thing he said about 'withering away to nothing' hit something a little too close to home, leaving him with unease.

"What I mean is Leo, you'll never be able to experience a true death. A painful death, something helpless and unstoppable. If you merely return to the celestial spirit world after receiving a few injuries how would you truly know anything about dying?"

It might've been Loke's imagination, but there was something really off about those words, and the air around them, it was suffocating. "What are trying to say?" He asked warily.

"That I'm going to let you experience a true death." Mallore darkly said and that was it. Loke was suddenly breathless and blinded. But he felt pain. Lots of unbearable, unstoppable pain. It ripped through him with an exponential force.

And a bloodcurdling scream could be heard, too high-pitched to be his own. Lucy.

The blinding light in front of him was fading but he couldn't focus on it anymore. He couldn't see what was going on around him, the only thing he had was pain. It hurt. The pain. It felt like it came from everywhere. It hurt so bad, too much, he couldn't take it anymore. Thoughts scattering. More pain. He couldn't breathe, couldn't scream...

Couldnt scream with the lance pierced right through his throat.

At any second it felt like his neck would snap in half. He could feel the sharp metal slicing through skin, muscle, and tendon. And he was quickly choking on his blood and broken cartilage, the constant gagging had him vomiting out mouthfuls of the red iron

Lucy sat there, bloodshot wide-eyed, tears stinging her eyes as she let out one scream after another. Loke remained there helpless and pinned to the wall with the lance jutting out crudely from his neck. Blood was streaming down profusely from any crevice it could and Loke gagged as more blood rushed out of his mouth. He didn't move to pull the lance off him, just spasmed and twitched violently, but he wasn't fading away back into the spirit world either. What was going on?

Lucy shakily held the golden key of Leo, but when she tried to force close his gate...

Nothing happened.

"Loke!" She screamed desperately, shooting herself from the ground, dropping his key in the process in order to get to him and the lance. But she never had the chance to reach him, Mallore roughly pushed her against the wall with one arm, using the other to force her head to face her friend. And no matter how hard she struggled against him, he didn't budge, and she stayed there helpless as she watched Loke dying.

Her tears and sobs were uncontrollable and Mallore shushed her softly. "Shhh, just watch."

THe gurgling sounds from Loke's gagging resumed, as did her sobbing, and Mallore smiled wickedly as more blood spilled out of the Leo's mouth.

He leaned in closer to Lucy and let out an airy laugh at the sound of her whimpering, he took another glance at Loke and sneered to the both of them.

"Death is only a gate."

"HEY!"

A surge of cold wind slapped through them and Mallore barely had time to dodge the ice projectile headed his way. Unfortunately for him, to do that he had to remove the lance pinning the lion.

Loke slumped to the ground along with Lucy. She unsteadily crawled over to him. "L-loke...?" She called shakily but he did not respond, his eyes glazed over, blood still spilling from his neck, and a gargle leaving his lips. The strong stench of iron hit her, Lucy had to place a over her mouth, and couldn't help but gag.

"Loke." She called again, in a watery desperate plea.

But he still remained there, still unresponsive, not fading back to the spirit like he should've done.

"No..."

No, this was wrong. Lucy thought.

This couldn't be happening.

Loke!

She grasped his shoulder and the second her hand made contact, a muffled sound of pain left Loke's lips, as did a struggling wheeze. He jerked a little forward and it left Lucy in a panic.

But then there was light. A golden light encompassing him. Under her palm she could feel his whole body trembling. And it seemed to her that the little flecks of golden light made a grab and took a small piece of Loke away with it. Was he finally going back to the spirit world?

And it was no later than a few seconds that Lucy was left with a handful of golden dust. Loke had faded away.

"What do we have here?" Mallore teasingly asked, grabbing Lucy's attention. "Seems Leo made it through the gate." Lucy wanted to believe that he meant Loke had made it back to the celestial spirit world. She really, truly wanted to, if not for the ominous way the man spoke. All it seemed to do was grind what little hope she had left into dust.

But before Mallore could take another step toward Lucy, multiple ice projectiles in the shape of lances hurdled through the air towards him. Even if it took little effort for him to block.

"And look, another prince has come looking for the princess." He mocked.

Lucy gasp at the sight of the sparkling ice, and the feel of cold magic rushing around. She snapped her head towards the source it came from and saw her friend and teammate, Gray, shirtless but absolutely livid.

"What the hell did you to Loke?"

And dangerously murderous.

"I was letting him experience a true death." The man audaciously mocked.

But it was Gray's cold and focused gaze that he had on Mallore that sent shivers down Lucy's spine.

"You're going to regret hurting my friends you bastard." Gray said darkly. Cold magic swirling around in a violent storm.

Mallore hummed a sound of approval and smiled. "Oh? Can't wait for you to show me a thing or two then." He taunted, getting into his battle stance.

"Gray." Lucy whimpered hopelessly.

"Sorry princess but this time I don't want to have an audience." Mallore stated.

Before she had time to register what the man had say. Her whole world had descended into darkness.

Her sobs continued to echo through the room. As did many shuddering gasps. She was clutching Loke's key to her chest.

"I'm sorry." She sorrowfully rasped. "I couldn't tell Natsu. I haven't even told anyone else. Only Gray knows." She slowly rocked herself back and forth, in an attempt to calm herself down. It didn't work and her tears seemed endless.

"Everyone was so worried about Natsu, I just didn't know how to bring it up. I'm sorry." She squeezed her eyes tightly shut. Trying to block out the rest of the world around her. She only wanted it to be her and Loke at the moment.

"I'm sorry for not being able to protect you." She continued her babbling apologies.

When they had arrived back to Fairy Tail and were told Natsu was in stable condition. She had snuck away back to her house, immediately pulling out Loke's key as soon as she stepped through the door. She had tried to summon him.

But he didn't respond. There was no soft glow of their magic reacting, no warmth.

In panic she had summoned Virgo and Aries and asked if they knew if Loke ever made it back to their realm. They told her they weren't sure, that a few days ago a bright golden light soared through their skies and landed within the Leo's domain. When the other zodiac spirits went to investigate, they found that his domain was closed off to everyone. Nobody could break through it.

Her eyes were downcast as she thanked them sadly before sending them back to their realm.

She soon found herself in her bed crying her heart out.

"I'm sorry for being unable to do anything to help now."

For many days she had tried to make contact to Loke, to no avail. Her emotions were such in a state of array that Aquarius came out on her own will and threatened to drown her, before trying to reassure that it was going to be okay. That the light they saw was most probably Loke and he just needed extensive time to heal.

Her words had helped Lucy a bit. She was able to return to the guild and stay by Natsu's side whenever she could. But there were still dark emotions hidden in the shadows of heart. Feeding her tiny bits of doubt and worry.

It's been almost three weeks already. Even Natsu has finally woken up. Why hasn't Loke contacted her?

"I'm sorry Loke." She brokenly whispered.

She looked back down at his key, the golden shine seemed duller now.

"Loke?" She softly called.

No answer.

"Can you hear me?"

None.

She grasped it tightly and brought it closer to her face. "ANSWER ME LOKE!" She cried out to the key. She was shaking again.

"Please?"

It was quiet, save for Lucy's sobs, her shuddering breaths, and her thundering heartbeat but to her those things were irrelevant. Because it was still so quiet. Because there was no response back. Aside from the echoing cries from Lucy, there was only silence. No answer. None.

Her vision was a watery blur, the pain in her chest tightened and ached unbearably so. She couldn't take this anymore; between the mission, Natsu, and Loke it felt like her entire being was threatening to shatter violently. She wasn't sure how long she could keep herself together because it was thanks to Gray that she hasn't crumble over herself.

He was the only who knew what happened, he was there, and was the only one who could understand. Gray had seen Lucy at her lowest and she selfishly regretted not being able to be there during his. Because waking up to finding Gray with a dying Natsu was only the tip of the iceberg for the ice mage. And she wished to know everything that happened to him so that maybe she could be there for him like he was to her.

After all he had selflessly carried both his weight and hers—all the burdening troubles she couldn't deal with, Gray was there for her to confide in and he helped ease her pain. He did so without asking or expecting anything in return. At first it made Lucy feel terrible that she couldn't do anything for him because he had become so despondent, she noticed even if he hid it fairly well in front of the other guild members. Of course they knew something was wrong—his sudden silence, his broodiness, Gary didn't really make an effort to play it off and lie to everyone that he was fine. Instead he opted in keeping to himself while disregarding others. Not even the relentless persistence from Juvia and Erza, the subtle gentle approaches from Mira, Wendy, and herself, the wayward consolation from Cana and alcohol, or the fatherly assurance from Master Makarov could penetrate the constant thickening of Gray's icy walls.

However, despite the blockade that Gray was building between himself and the rest of the guild Lucy could still see the cracks and fractures left on his very self. And how with each passing day that Natsu had remained unconscious, Gray lost a piece of himself. The cracks and broken pieces of him shattering and breaking off like fragile glass, would leave him a little less... Here.

Lucy could see this because it happened to her but she would never know what it was of Gray's that Mallure had crushed and grounded into handfuls of sharp cold dust. She could now only hope that Natsu will find a way to heal Gray. He may be unable to restore Gray the way he usee to be but maybe Natsu can fill and replace those cracks and fractures with something else that will make him whole again.

"Hey." A voice softly said, it was comforting and soothing. A voice she had become familiar with over the past few weeks and had taken advantage of multiple times.

Lucy didn't look up to acknowledge the call, keeping her face buried into her knees, until she felt light wisps of cool air. She began to calm down when the air around her had unnaturally cooled down several degrees. When she finally looked up she gasped at the sight of tiny crystalline flakes, silver and cold, cascading airily down all around her.

When she turned her gaze towards the source she saw Gray, shirtless once more, his expression hard, edgy, and stoic but it softened slightly when their eyes met. The reassurance she found in his presence flooded her with relief. Once again she would hate herself just a little more for embracing his comfort, when she was unable to help him in return.

Once again she would take advantage of her friend.

"Gray?" She whimpered, with the slight grains of hopeful dust in her voice.

Hoped you guys liked the latest chapter! Finally Gray makes an appearance ;d but next chapter will be the fated meeting between the two boys, the one everyone's anticipating (watch it be sooo anti-climatic hah).

Please review C:

Take care my lovelies!

Nova